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What a Birthday!

On Saturday 9 April, the Zoo held a celebration of mammoth proportions for Cuddles the African Elephant’s 40th birthday.

The ‘Elebration’ included special activities at the African Elephant exhibit including the opportunity to go behind the scenes on a guided tour with a Zoo volunteer to see where the Elephants sleep whilst learning about the special aged care program for the Zoo’s older Elephants.

We asked everyone for a gold coin donation if they wanted to go on the tour, with all funds raised going to the Biodiversity and Elephant Conservation Trust in Sri Lanka.

Our keepers laid out a display of the food an Elephant eats in a day and gave a special keeper talk to recognise this milestone.

Visitors were intrigued by how much an Elephant eats each day and also how much they poo! (about 100 kg goes in and comes out each day)

The highlight for the celebration was a special birthday surprise for Cuddles which was an Elephant-sized cake complete with all her favourite treats from wheatgerm, and molasses to carrots and sugar cane which was all frozen like a big ice cream cake.